“Now it isn't that I don't like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I'm strangely drawn toward you, but - well, there haven't been any quiet moments.”
After a disappointing commercial release, director Howard Hawks surmised that his screwball comedy failed because his characters were so madcap that the film lost its grounding. Decades later, Bringing Up Baby is regarded as one of the greatest comedies of all time, and perhaps the greatest entry into the screwball subgenre. Actually, all the zaniness in the story can be attributed to one center of gravity, socialite Susan Vance, played to perfection by Katharine Hepburn. Every other character in the film, exemplified the engaged scientist played by Cary Grant, serves the role of straight man. Hepburn’s Susan simply overpowers their seemingly firm grip on sanity and normalcy through her infectious lunacy. No actress has ever delivered a stronger comedic performance; Hepburn was fearless enough to embrace a dangerous leopard on the set as if it were just another co-star. The visual gags designed around the massive wildcat (the titular Baby) work every bit as well as the script’s constant wordplay and situational hi-jinks. The film is filled with instances of man’s dominance over nature (hunting, domestication of animals, paleontology), but Kate Hepburn reminds us that some forces are too wild for any man to tame.
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